Medals, Ribbons and Accessories Accessories

Single cluster Four leaf cluster

An oak leaf cluster or oakleaves is a common device which is placed on U.S. military awards and decorations (and those of some other nations) to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a particular decoration. The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the second and subsequent award of the decoration.

Most military awards use bronze, silver, and gold oak leaf clusters. The higher ranking oak leaf clusters are issued in lieu of a greater number of lower ranking clusters, allowing a large number of award annotations to fit on a single ribbon. For instance, five bronze oak leaf clusters would be denoted by one silver and five silver by one gold.

The United States military issues only bronze and silver oak leaf clusters. Gold oak leaf clusters were briefly considered as a device for the Air Medal, but this was not adopted by any of the services.

An example:

__________________

American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!